Trial against Delhi gang-rape accused for robbery

New Delhi: A robbery case involving five December 16 gangrape accused was on Wednesday transferred to a sessions court in New Delhi for start of trial proceedings.

During a closed-door hearing, Metropolitan Magistrate Akash Jain transferred the case to a sessions court as the offences for which the accused have been chargesheeted are exclusively "triable" by a sessions judge.

The case will come up before the sessions court on Thursday. The police had earlier provided documents, filed along with the charge sheet, to the advocates appearing for the accused.

The six persons, including a juvenile, had allegedly beaten and robbed a carpenter before raping and assaulting a 23-year-old girl in the moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, last year. Accused Ram Singh allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail on March 11. The juvenile is facing proceedings in the case before Juvenile Justice Board.

The trial against the four accused in the gangrape case is being conducted on a day-to-day basis by a special fast track court here which has already examined more than 60 witnesses.

The magistrate had on March 15 taken cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the police in the robbery case. The police in its 15-page charge sheet in the case has alleged that bus driver Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Singh, along with the juvenile, had snatched 35-year-old carpenter Ram Adhar`s mobile phone and Rs 1,500 after luring him into the bus.
They have been booked for offences under sections 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person), 342 (wrongfully confining any person), 394 (person voluntarily causing hurt in committing or attempting to commit robbery), 395 (dacoity), 412 (dishonestly receiving stolen property knowing that it was obtained by dacoity) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC. Proceeding against Ram Singh have abated following his death.
The paramedical student, who was brutally assaulted and gangraped in a moving bus, died in a Singapore hospital on December 29.